Keyboard shortcuts?

[milanfahrnholz]

@ZakPhoenixMcKracken

I second this, it happened that I tried to dial a number using the mumpad!

Wouldn´t that be like, super immersive?

[Caven]

@Nor_Treblig

@Caven

So are the dialogue options

Yes, but those are used far more often in the game.[/quote]
And the elevators are used far more often than the save/load feature. I wouldn’t advocate removing hotkeys for saving and loading due to relative lack of use, just as I wouldn’t advocate removing hotkeys for verbs or dialogue options due to relative lack of importance–even though the cursor will already be hovering over the dialogue options after the first line of the conversation.

Riding the elevator takes much more time than the two clicks selecting the floor, that’s why I don’t really see a point in this. (Also I personally didn’t have the feeling I lost a lot of time in it during the course of my first play)

Listening to or reading dialogue takes much more time than the click needed to select a dialogue option, that’s why I don’t really see a point in it. (Also I personally didn’t have the feeling I lost a lot of time on it during the course of my first play).

I don’t think Thimbleweed Park would be somehow less of a game for not implementing elevator hotkeys (truth be told I rarely use hotkeys myself due to being left-handed), but if people are willing to use hotkeys for verbs and dialogue, then perhaps they would like them for elevators and phones. (Thanks for suggesting phone keypads, milanfahrnholz. I can’t believe I didn’t think about that one at the same time.)

[quote]What we could request instead is that Franklin should be able to skip the elevator completely and just float between the floors… (the penthouse could by protected by a force field)

I think that falls well out of the purview of hotkeys, though admittedly, so does my original drag-and-drop suggestion. Having Franklin able to bypass the elevator would also make it harder for the player to recognize the nature of the obstacle, since they might completely miss the conversation involved. Also, you’d have to explain why the force field is affected by food and entertainment.

[asterothe]

@RonGilbert

Since we’re doing a update in the next few weeks/month, are there any UI/keyboard/mouse changes you’d like to see? Nothing major, just small stuff to make playing easier.

CTRL + M → opens map after the map is available
I second character selections with keys.

[Jupp]

What about right-click to advance to the next text line?
In some review I read someone complained about not being able to fast-forward text. I don’t blame him because finishing a sentence with a full stop is a very Ron Gilbert thing.
Also, if you are playing with a mouse only, it is more convenient.

@RonGilbert

Slamming your fist on the keyboard autosolves a puzzle.

Can that be reconfigured to also work with the head instead of the fist?

[LowLevel]

@Jupp

What about right-click to advance to the next text line?

You can already do that clicking the middle mouse button / scroll wheel.

[Jupp]

Thanks, I was not aware of that.

[Kuma]

I would love to have the option to turn off the hotspotCursors in the options menu.

[Nor_Treblig]

@Caven

And the elevators are used far more often than the save/load feature. I wouldn’t advocate removing hotkeys for saving and loading due to relative lack of use, just as I wouldn’t advocate removing hotkeys for verbs or dialogue options due to relative lack of importance

You can easily get to save/load via the menu and I wouldn’t say those hotkeys are that important either.
Unlike the verb hotkeys since the verb interface is what you use to interact with the game most of the time.

@Caven

Listening to or reading dialogue takes much more time than the click needed to select a dialogue option, that’s why I don’t really see a point in it. (Also I personally didn’t have the feeling I lost a lot of time on it during the course of my first play).

I didn’t really miss hotkeys for dialog options. OK, there was one exception: not being able to press the numbers when using the computer and text adventure was a little bit annoying/counter-intuitive.

@Caven

(Thanks for suggesting phone keypads, milanfahrnholz. I can’t believe I didn’t think about that one at the same time.)

I agree with hotkeys for those keypads! But the elevator is also a little more complicated to implement since you would have to enter a 1- to 2-digit number (and I don’t think we really want to map the F-keys…).

@Caven

Having Franklin able to bypass the elevator would also make it harder for the player to recognize the nature of the obstacle, since they might completely miss the conversation involved. Also, you’d have to explain why the force field is affected by food and entertainment.

Oh the force field is just created by Xavier to prevent other ghosts from accessing the penthouse through the floor, he let Clara handle the access via the elevator.

In general I find it a little bit strange when ghosts in video games or movies are bound to the floor. Of course it’s often done for practical reasons.

[Nor_Treblig]

@ZakPhoenixMcKracken

@milanfahrnholz

using the phones with the numbpad

I second this, it happened that I tried to dial a number using the mumpad!

Wait, WHAT??
  

[ZakPhoenixMcKracken]

@Nor_Treblig

@ZakPhoenixMcKracken

I second this, it happened that I tried to dial a number using the mumpad!

Wait, WHAT??

Didn’t tell you? I own the original Cousin Ted’s keyboard!

[milanfahrnholz]

@Nor_Treblig

Wait, WHAT??

At least he didn´t write “Mumm cat”, that couldn´t be because Mumm-Ra hates the Thundercats!

@Nor_Treblig

In general I find it a little bit strange when ghosts in video games or movies are bound to the floor. Of course it’s often done for practical reasons.

There is really only one way for a ghost to haunt a hotel floor

[Someone]

@Caven

Would it be possible to enable keyboard shortcuts for the elevator when standing inside it?

I would welcome shortcuts in the elevator too. At least I used the elevator many many times and it would be great if you could speed up that a little bit.

@milanfahrnholz

Seriously though, being able to use the elevator with the numbers on the keyboard or even better using the phones with the numbpad sound like nice idea.

Great idea! I vote for this too.

[Nor_Treblig]

@ZakPhoenixMcKracken

Didn’t tell you? I own the original Cousin Ted’s keyboard!

I always cringe when people enter numbers using the digits above the letters (assuming they have a numpad).
Or using a calculator application with the mouse.

[RonGilbert]

One problem with using the numpad to enter phone numbers is the payout is not the same (at least on US keyboards). For some quirk in history, they decided to flip the layout from phones and keyboards.

Either way, I have implemented the numpad, so it will be in the next patch.

[milanfahrnholz]

@RonGilbert

For some quirk in history, they decided to flip the layout from phones and keyboards

I cannot believe I haven´t noticed that, while it´s directly in front of my eyes! Of course the numpad is upside down and 123 are on the bottom while 789 are on top! Well at least 456 is still in the middle, thanks a lot anyway can´t wait to try it!

[RonGilbert]

FWIW, implementing keyboard input is a PITA. All you get back are scan codes, and they are completely different on different keyboards, so you have to do a lot of odd mapping, plus there is the modifier keys (like shift). On US keyboards, the { and } keys are shift [ and ]. There is only one scan code for the { and [ key, but on other keyboards, the { and [ and not the same key, so you can’t just assume shift. The operating systems deal with these translation, but most games don’t use the OS to get key presses (it’s cumbersome and slow). We use SDL for input. SDL has a way to turn on natural input, but it’s meant for text input, not fast key presses. Maybe there is a SDL function to simply return the ascii and not the scan code. If someone knows how to do this, I’m all ears.

[ZakPhoenixMcKracken]

@RonGilbert

SDL has a way to turn on natural input, but it’s meant for text input, not fast key presses. Maybe there is a SDL function to simply return the ascii and not the scan code.

So you are searching for an SDL function that “converts” scancode constants (SDL_SCANCODE_KP_0 … SDL_SCANCODE_KP_9 or SDLK_KP_0 … SDLK_KP_9) in ASCII values (48…57).
Correct?
But in this way, if a user presses a cipher on the numpad, or on the first top line, he gets the same results.
Aren’t keys from 1 to 5 (on the top line) reserved for switching characters?

Back to SDL: try the keysym property. It has 2 fields that could interest you:

• sym
• unicode

The first one returns a keycode (i.e. SDLK_KP_0), but the second one returns the unicode ASCII number of the graphical representation. For numbers, it should be OK.

[RonGilbert]

@ZakPhoenixMcKracken

The first one returns a keycode (i.e. SDLK_KP_0), but the second one returns the unicode ASCII number of the graphical representation

I tried that a while ago, and it doesn’t contain valid data. Maybe it works on Win, but not on the Mac? I’ll investigate further when I have some time. Priority is the mobile ports right now. Thanks.

[RonGilbert]

I just looked at this again, there is no unicode field in SDL2.

[ZakPhoenixMcKracken]

Uhm, searching on the Internet, I stumbled into this topic.
Briefly: from SDL1 to SDL2, they deprecated the “unicode” field. A programmer should call a SDL_TextInputEvent, but I think you already tried that.
The topic shows some user interactions and ideas to workaround this problem, that exists through cross-platform and non-Latin alphabet (i.e. chinese).